Mimic (1997)

Director:

Writers:

Cast:

Mira Sorvino – Dr Susan Tyler

Jermey Northam – Dr. Peter Mann

Alexander Goodwin – Chuy

Giancarlo Giannini – Manny

Charles S. Dutton – Leonard

Josh Brolin – Josh

Alix Koromzay – Remy

It’s strange for me to think that there was a movie on Netflix by del Toro that I haven’t seen. It’s not like this movie is anything new, in fact I think I have glossed over it a bunch of times by now. The film is based off a short story by Donald A. Wolheim who actually does play a decent part in this review.

The story is one that I think is an interesting topic and one that I take kind of seriously. We have a plague that is being spread by coach roaches. I hate those stupid bugs, I know most people do but after doing an internship in New York City you really start to hate them, and in order to get rid of the bugs (and plague) they introduce a predator. Now this Predator is a new bug that is made in a lab by our main character Susan Tyler. They call it the Judah Breed and it kills a good portion of the roach problem, but in three years it creates a different one.

The bugs manage to survive longer than they were supposed to, all of them were made either female or sterile. If that sound familiar its because 7 years earlier we got the same thing in Jurassic Park (nature always finds a way). They adapt and evolve into the killers… I have no idea how bugs can evolve into things that can mimic human shapes but it did.

I can’t say I really understood all of the subplots of the movie, because it was kind of hard to follow. There wasn’t anything in the movie that, I felt anyways, gripping or urgent. I was never under any assumption that the bugs were going to kill the lead woman and I never really connected with any of the characters. They simply weren’t very relatable, no every man/woman for people to bond too.

I would normally talk about the acting in my review, something that is normally very important but for the life of me ten minutes after I watched the movie I was already forgetting it. The only one that really stood out to me was Charles S. Dutton because it seemed like he put it all into his performance but I really didn’t like how his character was written. Something bothers me when we have a stereotypical cop.

The effects were alright I guess, everything was too dirty and grungy to look at that bad as far as practical effects go. The issue is when the CG comes in because it looked freaking awful. When you have a dirty background try to add some texture in. I know things have come a long way from 1997 but if they couldn’t make it look right they should have done it differently.

In the end del Toro disowned the film that was released, he clashed with Weinstein constantly. There were fights between Mira Sorvino Jeremy Northan and that would explain the lack of chemistry. The reason why I think it was so bland was because it was meant to be only 30 minutes long but was stretched out… good thinking Miramax. So this movie doesn’t get an F because when I was done I was bored and disinterested instead of offended.